Dioramas

Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz TRAVELERS

Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz The Labrynth, 2004 C-Print40 x 33 inches Edition of 5

Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz Traveler 218, 2007Snowglobe9x6x6 inches Photograph 40x33” C-PrintEdition of 5

Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz Traveler 225, 2007 Snowglobe 9x6x6 inches Photograph 40x33 inches C-Print Edition of 5

Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz Islands Series A March Sky, C-Print 40 x 72 inches Edition of 6

Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz Meanwhile Further South, 2007 C-Print 35 x 72 inches Edition of 6

Marcel Du Champ Étant donnés: 1° la chute d'eau, 2° le gaz d'éclairage... (Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas... ) Philadelphia Museum of Art Mixed media assemblage including an old door, bricks, velvet, wood, leather stretched over metal armature, twigs, aluminum, glass, plexiglas, linoleum, cotton, gas lamp, motor, etc. 92 ½” x 70” x 45”

After his death it was revealed that Duchamp had been secretly working on a large scale diorama called Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas... It was unveiled at the Philadelphia Museum of Art nine months after his death. Duchamps obsession with molding the female body can be found in many of his earlier works. Is this figure the Bride now torn from the protective cocoon of her Large Glass ?

She holds out at arm’s length a bec Auer gas lamp. Behind her is a photo of a lanscape bathed in an unreal light. In the photograph is a waterfall operated by a motor.The whole scene provokes a sense of unease in the viewer. Are we spectator’s to some sort of sadistic crime? A rape?

The viewer has to move form one eyehole to the other to see the entire scene. The viewer thus finds themselves in the same situation as the bachelor –pursuing an inaccesible prey which they will never be able to possess.